The present invention relates to network monitoring systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to intelligently reducing and storing network information.
Networks are used to interconnect multiple devices, such as computing devices, and allow the communication of information between the various interconnected devices. Many organizations rely on networks to communicate information between different individuals, departments, work groups, and geographic locations. In many organizations, a network is an important resource that must operate efficiently. For example, networks are used to communicate electronic mail (e-mail), share information between individuals, and provide access to shared resources, such as printers, servers, and databases.
A typical network contains multiple interconnected devices, including computers, servers, printers, and various other network communication devices such as routers, bridges, switches, and hubs. The multiple devices in a network are interconnected with multiple communication links that allow the various network devices to communicate with one another.
Network management is the process of managing the various network devices and network communication links to provide the necessary network services to the users of the network. Typical network management systems collect information regarding the operation and performance of the network and analyze the collected information to detect problems in the network. The amount of data collected in such a manner can be vast and increases as the size of the network (e.g., the number of interconnected devices in the network) increases and as the collection frequency increases. For example, tracking information for a network having 1000 interconnected devices can easily result in over 100 Mbytes of data daily. Although it would be beneficial to have access to such information over time, typical network management systems do not allow for the ability to store such large amounts of data. Furthermore, for many networks the storage capacity required to store such large amounts of data is prohibitively expensive.
Additionally, it is often useful for network management systems to be able to identify the topology of the network to a user(s). However, typical network management systems provide only a current xe2x80x9csnapshotxe2x80x9d of the network topology and do not provide the ability to view previous topologies of the network. Furthermore, any attempts to store such data would simply exacerbate the storage space problem discussed above.
It is therefore desirable to provide improved data storage of information regarding the operation and performance of a network.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for intelligent storage and reduction of network information. An embodiment of the present invention is capable of reducing an amount of storage space required for network information by receiving current network information and comparing the current network information with previously received network information. The current network information is saved if the current network information exceeds the previously received network information by a threshold, and an identifier associated with the current network information is updated if the current network information does not exceed the previously received network information by the threshold.
An embodiment of the present invention is capable of reducing an amount of storage space required for network information by comparing network information for a time period with network information from previous time periods. An indication of the network information for the time period is saved if the network information for the time period exceeds the network information from previous time periods by -a threshold.